Judge in Collins' conflict of interest case wants a trial date this year

Apparently grounded by bad weather in the Midwest, the high-profile attorney of former county water board member Steve Collins failed to show up for his first court hearing in the case on Wednesday.

But a Superior Court judge made it clear the case will remain on schedule.

San Francisco attorney Michael Burt and his associate who did appear, attorney Muhammad Hamoudi, drew an admonition from Judge Pamela Butler that Burt should make sure to show up at the next court hearing on April 19 and be prepared for a trial date to be set in the already lengthy case.

Butler told Hamoudi and Collins, who appeared in court, that the case would not stretch on for "two or three years," adding, "We are going to get a trial date in 2013."

The judge's comments came after Hamoudi indicated the defense would file a motion to dismiss charges against Collins on the basis of insufficient evidence presented during the preliminary hearing. Hamoudi told the court the defense had just received 11 boxes of evidence connected to the case from Public Defender Jim Egar's office on Friday, and would need time to go through the records, including the transcript of the preliminary hearing, before deciding how to proceed.

The attorney said the defense had to go ahead and file the motion to dismiss to preserve the right to argue it and seek additional review from a higher court, if needed.

Such a motion must be filed within 60 days of Collins' arraignment, which occurred Jan. 11.

The motion to dismiss will be heard by a different judge than Butler, who ordered defense briefs on the motion by April 5.

Collins has pleaded not guilty to 41 charges, including felony conflict of interest allegations that he had a financial interest in key agreements at the core of the failed regional desalination project. He is accused of accepting $160,000 in payments from private consultant RMC Water and Environment for work he did on the project in 2010 while he was a public official.

The bulk of charges against Collins involve allegations that he accepted payments from Castroville artichoke grower Ocean Mist Farms for several years for public meetings he never attended or never occurred.

Collins' defense has argued he was recruited to work on the desal project by county officials and assured his work for RMC was not a conflict of interest. His defense argued his Ocean Mist invoices were never intended to be accurate representations of his actual work and simply a pro forma method to justify regular consulting payments.

Collins was represented by the well-known local attorney team of Mike Lawrence and Juliet Peck until his arraignment, when he told the court he could no longer pay for private representation.

He was assigned to the public defender's office, which declared a conflict, and Burt was assigned to the case through the Alternate Defender's Office.

Burt, an expert in death penalty cases, is one of four attorneys who serve as federal death penalty resource counsel. He had appeared in federal court in the Midwest on Monday before finding himself stranded there late Tuesday.